US Pharma Tariffs: 100% on Paper, 15% for the EU, Zero for 13 of 17

The headline says 100%. Almost nobody pays it.

The US ended 31 years of duty-free pharmaceutical trade on 31 July 2026, when the White House’s Section 232 proclamation of 2 April 2026 took effect for the first wave of companies. The tariff on patented drugs: 100%. Goods of EU origin: 15%. The UK: zero, backdated to 31 July under a Federal Register notice dated 4 August 2026.

What the annexes actually show

Read the annexes and the headline rate matters much less. Of the 17 companies hit first, 13 already hold US pricing agreements that keep them at zero. AstraZeneca, Novartis and Sanofi are all on that list.

So Europe’s real deviation is 0% to 15%, not 0% to 100%. On EUR 119.8bn of EU pharma exports to the US in 2024 (Eurostat via SOCI, April 2025), that gap is still expensive.

Chart of US pharma tariff rates by category: 100% headline rate, 15% for EU-origin goods, 0% for the UK and for Annex II companies with pricing agreements

One thing that complicates it: the cost estimates in circulation, $13bn (ING) and $19bn (Bernstein), both date from July 2025 and assume a flat 15% rate. They price a regime that no longer exists.